Each of said numbering units prints the individual information item on the paper of value or the sheet of papers of value, the individual information item being changed in the following printing operation. Thus, for example, the value of the serial number, during printing of individual papers of value, is incremented or decremented by one after the printing operation.
The setting of the position of the individual carrier disks and numbering units of a numbering machine is performed manually in the prior art. Here, the individual carrier disks on the shaft and the individual numbering units of each carrier disk are positioned roughly according to a predefined layout and locked. By way of the numbering machine which is set roughly in this way, a first sample or a first sample sheet is printed, the prints of the individual numbering units are measured and the correction values to achieve the stipulated target positions are calculated. Then, the individual positions of the carrier disks on the shaft and of the individual numbering units of each carrier disk are corrected by hand and a sample sheet is printed again. This operation is repeated until the positions of the prints of the individual numbering units on the paper of value or the sheet of papers of value lie within the margins of error of the target positions.
However, this is particularly disadvantageous in that this operation requires a considerable amount of time and manpower. For instance, it can take up to fourteen hours until the numbering units of a numbering machine are completely adjusted. During this time, the numbering machine is not available for printing papers of value or sheets of papers of value.